Planes, Trains & Automobiles that’s Quirky Nights Glamping
B
y the time you read this, one of the most audacious and innovative exercises in the history of camping will have hopefully been successfully completed. If it happens it's all down to a Mayo/ Sligo business man making a reality of his dream to create a unique transport themed glamping park.
David McGowan (pictured), a Ballina, County Mayo based funeral undertaker, has come up with a hugely ambitious plan to create a campsite with a difference in the nearby seaside town of Enniscrone, County Sligo. Instead of the traditional tents, caravans and motorhomes normally seen on campsites, or even the yurts and tree houses that offer more glamorous camping (or glamping), Quirky Nights Glamping is a park where vehicles from the world of transport are the star attractions.
We’re talking boats, London taxis, doubledecker buses and a train converted into glamorous camping accommodation. And for good measure, a Boeing 767 passenger jet, which, as Caravan Cruise Ireland goes to print, is being shipped along the west coast from Shannon to Enniscrone. “The concept of Quirky Nights Glamping is to turn all types of transportation into accommodation,” explains David, “but that concept will end up very badly if it’s not properly designed. I decided the theme would be an airport setting – so if I succeed in bringing the plane to Enniscrone then I’ll surround the whole site around that.” Transporting plane to site a major undertaking With the airplane central to the future of the project, a lot depends on the successful transportation of the jet this first week in May. Having purchased a decommissioned full sized wide-bodied Russian passenger airliner residing in Shannon Airport, moving it to Enniscrone is no simple task.
quite disappointing because after 8 to 9 months of engineering the possibility just vanished off the radar. There were a couple of bridges we just couldn’t get under and the local authorities wouldn’t allow us put a crane on the bridge to lift it over. We looked at loads of other options, one being a blimp that is being built in England that would have lifted 55 tonnes - the plane is 50 tonnes - but that’s not certified until next year.” Under pressure from Shannon Airport to move the plane, other possibilities looked at and discarded included hovercrafts and helicopters before deciding on the water route. The logistics involved are mind-boggling, with David estimating that he has thirty eight different teams in place to execute the transfer.
Shipping it up along Ireland’s West Coast has come about because the original idea to move the airplane by road had to be abandoned, as David explains:-
“The sea runs right in to the heart of Shannon Airport. It will require a large barge coming in from England that will be pulled by a tug. We’ll bring the plane down to the road, so I will have to block off Shannon International Airport for 2 hours. It took a fair bit of convincing Shannon Airport Authority to allow me close down an International airport. There are no flights between 2am and 4am in the morning so that’s the window that I’m being given.”
“We looked at (and engineered) an awful lot of different types of moves. Road obviously was the first one, and that was
“We will then take it to the port, and there we will have a 500 tonne crane to lift it onto the barge. Before we do that we have
32 CARAVAN CRUISE IRELAND | SUMMER 2016